Does Independent Government tend toward \"Parachurch Presbytery\"?
A provocative title I hope. There was a great discussion between Bruch, Ivan and Trevor here:
http://www.puritanboard.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=18661&page=2
One of the discussion centered around the weaknesses of an independent Church government form. Something happened today that got me thinking about it...
As many of you know, I attend an SBC congregation out here in Okinawa. We're between Pastors right now so leaders decided to allow an organizer for the Franklin Graham Festival (will occur in November) to fill the pulpit until the new Pastor arrives from Southwestern Baptist Seminary in September.
I've shared with you some of the issues regarding the methods and message of folks in the Billy and Franklin Graham organization. In this this thread, we discussed some of the theological problems with the organization at large.
Well today's "sermon" focused on John 17 and Christ's prayer that Christian unity would testify to the fact that the Father sent the Son. He then used that as an opportunity to demonstrate how disconnected all the Christian Churches were on Okinawa. People don't even know that there are Christian Churches in the "neighborhood". As an organizer for the Franklin Graham festival, they have organizers in each of those Churches. Their goal is to bring all the Churches to work toward a common aim.
Actually, his comment was as true as far as it went: All these independent Churches have no "connection" to one another whatsoever. How is Christ's prayer in John 17 answered by such Independence? We'll come back to that...
He went on to mention that he was meeting with the Mayor of Chatan this past week. Chatan is the town I live in and it has a huge baseball stadium that I run by on the weekends. Japanese professionals play in it. They were explaining to the Mayor that they wanted to have a Christian festival. The conversation went something like this (Graham organizer's name is Bill):
Mayor: Is this for Baptists?
Bill: No, these are all the Christian Churches on Okinawa.
Mayor: All Christians? Even Catholics?
Bill: Yes, even Catholics.
With pride, the organizer recounted how the Mayor was impressed that all Christians would be coming together and that he did not want to stand in the way of an event for all the Okinawan Christians (Christianity is about 1% of the 1.3 million population, half of which are U.S. military).
The sermon went on to laud how everybody, including Catholics, were participating and that such showed the unity described in John 17. This received a few "Amens" from the rear of the Church. I was fuming.
After the service, I took the preacher aside and gently but firmly told him that the Roman Catholic Church is NOT a Christian Church and that darkness has no unity with light. He expressed that he didn't intend to confuse the ignorant in the congregation. I told him that it is one thing for a parachurch organization to "share the stage" with Roman Catholics but in the preaching of the Word, the Truth needs to be heralded without confusion.
Anyway, this afterward led to an epiphany: Independent Churches depend on such Parachurch organizations for unity outside their independent circles. I think the unity they desire is "natural" and that John 17 is not a call for an "invisible" unity that the world cannot see. I see this as an inherent weakness of Independent Church government.
It is also dangerous because the types of unity that they form in the place of a Presbytery or General Assembly has no accountability whatsoever. Nothing authenticates "Truth" in the "unity" relationships that people make across Church lines. Some relationships are authentic but, more often than not, many are not very thoughtful as individuals form Bible studies with an eclectic mix of every stripe of theology, including some that are not Christian.
Also, because they rely on Parachurch organizations like the Graham organization, they end up imitating the lack of doctrinal discretion. "If it's OK for Graham to partner with Roman Catholics then why shouldn't my unity with them be a working out of John 17 as well?" Maybe if the Roman Catholic Church is a shorter drive they should just start attending that Church since they already have "unity" after all....
Do you sense where I'm coming from here? I'm not expecting this to be an epiphany for Independent minded Baptists. I am a Presbyterian because I'm already convinced that the Scriptures call for accountability and real unity beyond the borders of the individual Church.
I think the proliferation of parachurch organizations can be traced, in no small measure, to the atomization of Christianity that is at odds with the desire within a Christian to have more than invisible unity with Christians elsewhere. Since independent Churches don't really provide that "real" unity, they are led into dangerous alternatives.
[Edited on 5-21-2006 by SemperFideles]
A provocative title I hope. There was a great discussion between Bruch, Ivan and Trevor here:
http://www.puritanboard.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=18661&page=2
One of the discussion centered around the weaknesses of an independent Church government form. Something happened today that got me thinking about it...
As many of you know, I attend an SBC congregation out here in Okinawa. We're between Pastors right now so leaders decided to allow an organizer for the Franklin Graham Festival (will occur in November) to fill the pulpit until the new Pastor arrives from Southwestern Baptist Seminary in September.
I've shared with you some of the issues regarding the methods and message of folks in the Billy and Franklin Graham organization. In this this thread, we discussed some of the theological problems with the organization at large.
Well today's "sermon" focused on John 17 and Christ's prayer that Christian unity would testify to the fact that the Father sent the Son. He then used that as an opportunity to demonstrate how disconnected all the Christian Churches were on Okinawa. People don't even know that there are Christian Churches in the "neighborhood". As an organizer for the Franklin Graham festival, they have organizers in each of those Churches. Their goal is to bring all the Churches to work toward a common aim.
Actually, his comment was as true as far as it went: All these independent Churches have no "connection" to one another whatsoever. How is Christ's prayer in John 17 answered by such Independence? We'll come back to that...
He went on to mention that he was meeting with the Mayor of Chatan this past week. Chatan is the town I live in and it has a huge baseball stadium that I run by on the weekends. Japanese professionals play in it. They were explaining to the Mayor that they wanted to have a Christian festival. The conversation went something like this (Graham organizer's name is Bill):
Mayor: Is this for Baptists?
Bill: No, these are all the Christian Churches on Okinawa.
Mayor: All Christians? Even Catholics?
Bill: Yes, even Catholics.
With pride, the organizer recounted how the Mayor was impressed that all Christians would be coming together and that he did not want to stand in the way of an event for all the Okinawan Christians (Christianity is about 1% of the 1.3 million population, half of which are U.S. military).
The sermon went on to laud how everybody, including Catholics, were participating and that such showed the unity described in John 17. This received a few "Amens" from the rear of the Church. I was fuming.
After the service, I took the preacher aside and gently but firmly told him that the Roman Catholic Church is NOT a Christian Church and that darkness has no unity with light. He expressed that he didn't intend to confuse the ignorant in the congregation. I told him that it is one thing for a parachurch organization to "share the stage" with Roman Catholics but in the preaching of the Word, the Truth needs to be heralded without confusion.
Anyway, this afterward led to an epiphany: Independent Churches depend on such Parachurch organizations for unity outside their independent circles. I think the unity they desire is "natural" and that John 17 is not a call for an "invisible" unity that the world cannot see. I see this as an inherent weakness of Independent Church government.
It is also dangerous because the types of unity that they form in the place of a Presbytery or General Assembly has no accountability whatsoever. Nothing authenticates "Truth" in the "unity" relationships that people make across Church lines. Some relationships are authentic but, more often than not, many are not very thoughtful as individuals form Bible studies with an eclectic mix of every stripe of theology, including some that are not Christian.
Also, because they rely on Parachurch organizations like the Graham organization, they end up imitating the lack of doctrinal discretion. "If it's OK for Graham to partner with Roman Catholics then why shouldn't my unity with them be a working out of John 17 as well?" Maybe if the Roman Catholic Church is a shorter drive they should just start attending that Church since they already have "unity" after all....
Do you sense where I'm coming from here? I'm not expecting this to be an epiphany for Independent minded Baptists. I am a Presbyterian because I'm already convinced that the Scriptures call for accountability and real unity beyond the borders of the individual Church.
I think the proliferation of parachurch organizations can be traced, in no small measure, to the atomization of Christianity that is at odds with the desire within a Christian to have more than invisible unity with Christians elsewhere. Since independent Churches don't really provide that "real" unity, they are led into dangerous alternatives.
[Edited on 5-21-2006 by SemperFideles]